HAREFIELD Hospital has fared well overall in its annual staff survey – but one fifth of employees say they have experienced harassment or bullying within the last year.

Each year staff at the hospital independently complete a staff survey conducted by the Care Quality Commission. The CQC published the results of this survey earlier this month.

Key findings show that 85 per cent of staff at the Royal Brompton and Harefield Foundation Trust say they are happy with the level of patient care they are able to provide. This is above the national average, and higher than the Hillingdon Hospital Trust (81 per cent).

A trust spokesperson said: "We believe our patients deserve the best possible specialist treatment for their heart and lung condition in a clean, safe place so we were delighted to see that our own staff are so proud of the care we provide and would be keen to see their own families treated at our hospitals.

"More than 90 per cent agree their role makes a difference to patients and almost as many say they feel satisfied with the quality of work and patient care they are able to deliver."

The biggest negative is that 22 per cent of staff reported experiencing harassment or bullying from other staff members, above a national average of 14 per cent. Adding to this, 17 per cent said they had experienced discrimination, set against a national indicator of 10 per cent.

Two per cent of staff even reported experiencing physical violence at the hands of other employees within the last 12 months.

The trust spokesperson said they would investigate these findings over the coming weeks.

"We believe our staff should feel valued and proud of their work and know that we will attract and keep the best people by understanding and supporting them.

"Listening to what they have to say about their work gives us the opportunity to make improvements, so we will be investigating issues such as harassment and discrimination with them over the coming weeks. It is very important to identify more about these issues - the CQC survey is quite a blunt instrument and for its results to be meaningful we need to find out more directly from staff.

"We have 'listening groups' where staff can discuss issues of concern to them and we will be using these and other initiatives to investigate further. It goes without saying that we have a zero tolerance approach to any form of harassment."

Positively, only a minority of staff said they felt work pressures, with four fifths of employees adding they would recommend the trust as a place to work or receive treatment. Only 36 per cent of staff reported witnessing potentially harmful errors at work, with 96 per cent reporting any incidents.